In all things founded on actual knowledge of the land, the labours of the explorers have added materially to the knowledge of the Bible. The seasons, the climate, the fauna and flora, the crops, the native customs and speech, the remains of Hebrew architecture, art, engineering, and monumental writing, have been described. Even as regards the question of transmission of ancient documents and the method of their preservation, some new hints have been collected.
It seems to me impossible for any one familiar with Oriental ideas to accept the ordinary theory of edited “documents,” which German scholarship has taken as its datum, since Astruc’s discovery of parallel passages in Genesis. Nor is it correct for critics to speak of the modern “theory of the Pentateuch.” There is more than one such theory, and their respective upholders are not in accord. If we take such a work as the Book of Kings, it seems to me that light is thrown on the method of its construction by the practice of the Samaritan high priests, who, as already explained, have continued their very sober chronicle from 1149 A.D. to 1859 A.D. by successive additions, and a knowledge of the documentary history of the Talmud or of the Zendavesta shows us that in Asia it is with the “commentator,” and not with the “editor,” that we have to deal—with sacred books preserved by loving care and reverence, not with a modern literature to be compared with our daily press.
I have been led to make these remarks, not through any want of respect for English scholarship and erudition, but because we are now entering on a new epoch of scientific study, and because the great importance of the change wrought by the increase of our actual knowledge is at times not recognised. We no longer depend on literature alone. We have actual monuments before our eyes. We have inscriptions, coins, seals, statues, chased metal-work, and pottery; we have collected measurements of tombs, walls, synagogues, and reliable photographs of every famous place. We have accounts of race, language, custom, and tradition, not hastily gathered, but the results of sifting and repeated inquiry. From such materials facts totally unexpected have been brought to light. Fifteen years ago no one knew that in Syria there was a system of hieroglyphics quite distinct from any other.[64] Forty years ago no scholar suspected the early civilisation of a forgotten Turanian race in Chaldea, whose language was recovered by the genius of Sir Henry Rawlinson. Now it is generally admitted by the few who have turned their attention to the matter that an old Mongolic people ruled over the Semitic dwellers in Palestine before the time of the Exodus. But this discovery has as yet found its way into no critical work on the Bible, save one hasty attempt to show that it contradicts Genesis. It is evident that in the future, when the subject is more fully understood, it must modify many conclusions previously supposed final. The Hebrew language itself was not perfectly understood until the knowledge of Assyrian had been sufficiently advanced to permit of comparison. Even now further steps are possible, and are being cautiously taken, by scholars familiar with the Akkadian, which show beyond dispute how words foreign to the Hebrew language, but proper to the Turanian speech of Western Asia, have found a place even in the earliest books of the Old Testament. This fact, only dimly suspected by Gesenius, has been brought to light entirely by monumental research.
Even in the nineteenth century, then, we are only beginning to understand the Bible from its historical and natural point of view. New maps, new dictionaries, new handbooks have already been found requisite to keep pace with the advance of knowledge due to exploration; and even these cannot pretend to be final or complete presentments of all that it is possible to know.
I may conclude, then, by a few words concerning the work which still remains to be done, which should be in two directions—excavation and the study of native life.
As regards excavation, there is very much to be done. At Cæsarea, at Herodium, at Jerusalem itself, at Samaria probably, at Gerasa, and Baalbek, there are secrets hidden still beneath the soil. The great Hittite Tells near Homs ought all to be examined by digging. The ruins of Carchemish have only been scratched over. Lebanon and Amanus are as yet but little known. New hieroglyphic texts may be expected from Northern Syria, and the Siloam inscription cannot be unique. Unfortunately the state of the East is very unfavourable to the antiquarian; but it must not be supposed that exploration is complete while fields as yet hardly worked exist all along the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.
As regards ethnological study, there is also much yet to be done. This can only properly be undertaken by residents. The observations of a stranger are not reliable. The inquirer must know the personal characters of those with whom he deals, and must be able to select those whose statements are worth recording. The peasantry especially should be studied, and their confidence will not be given to any save those with whom they are intimate.
The best ethnological information that I collected in Syria came from a respected German resident among the Samaritans, who was known to all the townsmen of Shechem as “the Father of Peace.” The object of those interested in such study should be to organise inquiries from sympathetic residents. The linguistic studies of Mr. C. Landberg at Sidon have been the most important of recent additions to our knowledge of the language, proverbs, and customs of the Syrian peasantry.[65]
A complete Fellah vocabulary should be collected in Syria. The vulgar pronunciation should be preserved, the vulgar idiom and grammatical blunders. A great many archaic words which are not in lexicons would thus be unearthed, just as we find valuable survivals in the dialects of our own provinces. To this vocabulary every legend, song, proverb, or mythical tale that can be gathered should be added, and every custom noted. The charms and amulets worn, the burial, birth, and marriage rites, the common oaths and salutations, the peasant ideas of etiquette and ceremony, every one of these has an unknown scientific value. Some attempt has already been made by the Palestine Exploration Fund to start such an inquiry; and until peace reigns and confidence is restored on the Sultan’s dominions, no more useful method of increasing our knowledge can be devised.
I will take leave, then, of my readers in the words of the old knight whose work in Palestine has not yet been proved to be other than an account of his own travels:—